Haga hospitals is threatening legal action against me because of some comments I made on various internet articles and blogs on the case of Lucia de Berk. Apparently these count as “publications” and they are all the more serious because I am a university professor, hence people are bound to believe every word I write. Apparently it would have been OK to post the comments anonymously, and to replace the names of various key persons by their functions (former chef-de-clinique/chief paediatrician at JKZ; former director of JKZ). And of course every statement should be preceded by “apparently/allegedly/it’s my opinion that”. Finally: irony, hyperbole, or understatement are not appreciated.
It’s my opinion that understanding the personalities of the key persons around which this whole case revolved, is the key to understanding why there was a case at all. Moreover: “tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner” – this understanding exhonerates those persons (chef-de-clinique/chief paediatrician at JKZ; director of JKZ) from any blame, of course they could no otherwise. Allegedly (ie, according to the reports of CEAS to the OM, of AG Knigge to the HR, of prof Meulenbelt to the court at Arnhem) they committed gross errors of professional judgement (both medical and managerial) which caused the whole catastrophe to explode out of control, devasting lives, almost killing Haga’s employee Mrs Lucia de Berk, ruining Netherlands international reputation for justice and humanity, and costing the Dutch taxpayer millions of Euros.
Once we know that those couple of people are not to blame, it follows that blame falls on the organisation around them (and above them). It follows that a great deal needs to be learnt about the root causes of the case, so as to prevent some bad luck and some and unlucky personality interactions from unleashing a social nuclear bomb and nuclear winter.

Open letter to board of Haga hospitals:
I was yesterday invited to give a major lecture to KNAW on the case of Lucia de Berk in all its ramifications and societal aspects. I would so like to be able to report that a mutually respectful and beneficial collaboration between scientists and Haga Hospitals is now helping to clarify what really happened, and to uncover the lessons that should be learnt for the future.
Now that the Lucia case is completely closed – in particular, there were no murders or otherwise unnatural deaths at all – I suppose there can no longer be any objection to a thorough multidisciinary and in particular statistical / epidemiological analysis of medical incidents at JKZ, say between 1995-2005. This would be so valuable for the future, and moreover, in accord with the current insight that sophisticated scientific evidence in the legal context has to be made as publicly available (to scientific inspection) as possible (cf reports of US Academy of Sciences, adopted by many scientific organizations worldwide).
Thanks to the investigations of Meulenbelt, Tytgat and Aderjan we now know that the nurses at JKZ worked in emergency situations with exemplary professionality, in contrast to the more mundane level of diagnosis and treatment. Moreover their insights into the medical state of the babies in their care was often better than that of specialists or their assistants, though usually not acknowledged as such.
Unfortunately, 30% of the Dutch population still believe that Haga’s former employee Lucia de Berk is a serial killer, and influential circles connected to the top of Haga still continue to broadcast the slanderous accusations that “there is so much more against her” and “the whole case is nothing but an out-of-control family feud driven by the jealousy of some family members for the much more succesful careers of others”, and “it became an awful media hype, what could 100 professors of statistics or a second rate novelist know about the case?”.
Despite repeated attempts from 2004 onwards to warn the concerned individuals and organizations that something was terribly wrong with the whole case, Haga and its senior personnel took no notice whatsoever, but instead (its senior personnel and their close associates) intensified attempts to discredit those who had uncovered this particularly inconvient truth.
Doctors and nurses in confidence told us of many persons’ deep concern about the case, but no-one dared to speak out. Even a retired medical specialist wouldn’t say anything in public, since that would damage the prospects of his children in medical school. The few medical experts who dared to contradict or criticise findings of some colleagues during the trial were later ostracized by other colleagues for the breach in collegiality.
Highly confidential inside information about the case was repeatedly leaked from the Public Ministry and from the judiciary (even from the supreme court) to senior employees of Haga. Those “outsiders” unfortunate enough to be driven by a dedication to justice and truth were subject to vile personal attacks in the media, accused of undermining the foundations of the state, and subjected to phone-taps and ostracism.
Vile disinformation about Haga’s former employee Mrs de Berk was leaked from Haga hospital to the press. Critical police investigators were taken off the case and critical hospital employees were silenced.
But that is all in the past now.
As always, despite this past, I remain hopeful of a mutually fruitful, mutually respectful, and civilized (gentlemanly) collaboration in the future.
Yours sincerely
Richard Gill
Distinguished Lorentz Fellow 2010-2011
President of Dutch Statistical Society
Member of KNAW